PAGE ONE -- Dole Goes on the Attack / Clinton stresses his record despite jabs at character

Susan Yoachum, Kenneth J. Garcia, Chronicle Political Writers

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, October 17, 1996

1996-10-17 04:00:00 PDT San Diego -- Hoping to turn the presidential race into a contest of character over issues, GOP nominee Bob Dole repeatedly attacked President Clinton's ethics last night -- but Clinton all but ignored the bait.

During the 90-minute, town-hall-style debate at the University of San Diego, Dole emphasized that his word is his bond, and Clinton stressed his record of achievements.

The questions were wide-ranging and generally well-fielded by both candidates -- but Dole's character offensive sputtered as San Diego County resi-

dents in the audience pressed for answers to such complex problems as the looming bankruptcies of Medicare and Social Security.

Dole began strongly, saying that "many American people have lost their faith in government" because "they see scandals almost on a daily basis . . . ethical problems in the White House today."

He tried to seize the chance to raise the character issue on every question.

"When you're the president of the United States, you have a public trust and you have to keep that public trust, as George Washington did and as Abraham Lincoln did. And I think now that trust is being violated."

In his one parry of Dole's criticism, Clinton sought to bring the debate back to his terms.

"No attack ever created a job or educated a child or helped a family make ends meet," Clinton said. "No insult ever cleaned up a toxic waste dump or helped an elderly person."

The two men differed on issues ranging from tax cuts to affirmative action. And with the town-hall format, two candidates played not only to a nationwide TV audience but also to the 113 uncommitted voters who posed all of the debate's questions.

One of Dole's toughest challenges was to try to connect with the audience. To one women who said she was unemployed, Dole said the first thing to do was to get her a job. But when another woman asked about equal rights for gays and lesbians, Dole's primary response concerned equal rights for the disabled.

In contrast, Clinton's greatest test came in deciding whether to respond to Dole's attacks on ethics, character and trust. Although Clinton's jaw appeared to tighten when Dole talked about pardons for Whitewater convicts, Clinton chose not to respond directly to any of Dole's jabs.

After the debate, each camp was certain that their candidate's strategy had prevailed.

"They have been hoping since the beginning that all these ethical problems will just go away, but as Bob Dole showed tonight, he's not going to let them," Barbour said.

Then, Clinton's deputy chief of staff, Harold Ickes, said the president was the "clear winner" on issues raised by the people, saying that the Dole campaign's assault on the president was not a winning strategy.

"They are trying anything because they're down so far," Ickes said. "This is a group of people who are desperate because they're 15 points behind and nothing else has worked."

The debate questions, which covered a variety of topics, focused on health care, including Medicare, as well as Social Security, welfare, the economy, minority rights and family leave.

On the question of affirmative action, Dole noted his support for California's Proposition 209, which calls for an end to preferential treatment in state programs on the basis of race or sex.

Clinton noted his opposition to quotas but reaffirmed his support of affirmative action.

One man in the audience, who identified himself as a former smoker, asked Dole whether he wanted to take back his assertion that nicotine was "not necessarily addictive." Dole said he had been speaking in a technical sense and strongly urged children and adults not to smoke. He then turned to statistics about the rising use of marijuana and cocaine among teenagers.

"It's all happened in this administration," Dole said. "They have been AWOL for 44 months."

Clinton said tobacco was an issue on which the candidates had a profound difference: He said he was willing to fight the powerful tobacco lobby and Dole was not.

Neither mentioned that the Philip Morris tobacco company was one of the corporate sponsors of last night's debate.

On the volatile question of whether to send U.S. troops as peacekeepers in the West Bank, Clinton made no commitments and Dole refused to make any comment that might aggravate the fragile situation in the Middle East.

Dole, however, went out of his way to remind the audience in a military town that he was a World War II veteran and accused Clinton of cutting the defense budget too much. Clinton objected "as commander in chief," saying his budget was just 1 percent lower than Republican plans for the Pentagon.

When one man asked about the rising costs of Social Security and Medicare, Clinton recalled Dole's comment last year that he was proud in 1965 to have voted against establishing Medicare. And Clinton said the 1995 Republican budgets pushed by Dole would have raised Medicare premiums on elderly Americans who could not afford it.

One young woman asked Dole if his age -- 73 -- would make it hard for him to understand the concerns of younger Americans.

"I think it is also a strength, an advantage," Dole said of his age, saying it gives him experience, intelligence and wisdom.

Clinton said he wouldn't make Dole's age an issue, but said "it's the age of his ideas I object to."

Dole retorted, "When you don't have any ideas, I guess you say the other person's ideas are old."